Non-profit organizations depend on the donations and support of the community around them to survive, and this May, The Kettle Friendship Society will be thanking the Commercial Drive community and surrounding areas, in which the Kettle calls home, by cleaning up two of the community’s most popular parks.
To kick off Mental Health Week on Sunday, May 1, staff, employees, and clients of the Kettle will start cleaning up Victoria Park off of Victoria Drive and Kitchener Street bright and early at 9 a.m. They will pick up garbage, tidy up the gardens and washrooms, as well as checking the playground to make sure everything is safe for the residents of the community. Then, three days later, on Wednesday, May 4, at 9 a.m. the Kettle team will move to McSpadden Park on Victoria Drive and East 5th Avenue.
The Kettle is a non-profit organization located on Venables Street, just off of Commercial Drive, that is focused on raising awareness of mental health issues by helping those suffering from mental illness through community outreach programs, supported housing, and employment and life skill programs. The City of Vancouver already employees a number of Kettle clients to pick up garbage on the busy sidewalks of Commercial Drive, known as “The Kettle Clean Team”.
The “Kettle Gives Back” program is a part of the on-going “Friends are Forever” campaign aimed at raising awareness of this organization in the community with the hopes of expanding the programs to reach more individuals suffering from mental illness.
